


Advance Warning

by allaire mikháil (allaire)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Gen, Post-Avengers (2012), Steve critical, Team Not As Family, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, agency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 10:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10242380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allaire/pseuds/allaire%20mikh%C3%A1il
Summary: Steve is unused to interacting with Omegas in the 21st century and makes a forgivable blunder. Tony and JARVIS shouldn't overreact so much.





	

"Iron Man. Stand down. That is an _order_."

Steve's voice is uncompromising - as is his expression. But it's not the tone of his voice that makes Tony's stomach contract, it's the timbre. The Captain's using his Alpha Voice, and while Tony's stomach might be twisting sickeningly, there's an elated feeling climbing up his throat, and a warm explosion of happiness (seratonin, a distant part of his brain states unemotionally) spreading in the back of his skull. He flushes, unconsciously ducks his head, and an agreement is already on his tongue.

_There's no need to worry. His Alpha knows best._

That's when the shock of electricity and static from his ears makes him yelp and slap both hands over them.

He grits his teeth. It's like chalk on a blackboard, like Obi... _Stane's_ fucking paralyser, like an electric current stabbing through his brain.

No wonder - that's what he and JARVIS designed it to be like, after all.

Tony straightens again and braves the confused and concerned looks thrown his way by Steve and his ever-present shadow, the infamous Winter Soldier.

Just like always, he feels woefully unprepared to face Barnes. When Steve and Natasha brought him in, two months ago, Barnes wasn't but a weak photo negative of Steve's old war-time buddy, functionally mute, withdrawn, always twitchy and hiding behind the tangles of his stringy hair whenever someone tried to talk to him. He's gotten better ever since Tony set him up with a psychiatrist, but he still slinks through the Tower like a ghost and never has an opinion on anything, be it for the Avengers' weekly movie-night or on what takeout to order. Honestly, it's infuriating.

Plus, Barnes is always _watching_ him. That's not creepy _at all_.

The sad thing is, the Alpha's honestly attractive as shit, even beaten down and withdrawn as he is these days. Tony would love to get to know him better. And offer to upgrade his arm. Seriously, that piece of HYDRA trash is a travesty that needs to die. Preferably as soon as possible. In a trash compactor. But Steve is all "Bucky needs to rediscover himself first, Tony... please tell me you understand," and so Tony keeps his distance. He knows he's a bit much even at the best of times. And Barnes? Is far from at his best at the moment.

Unfortunately, so is Tony. He's unshaven and grubby from an engineering binge in his workshop, and he's not quite certain which day of the week it is, only that the Avengers Assemble alarm started shrilling. As their only flier, he can't leave the team to fend for themselves even though he feels like undercaffeinated crap.

Thus, his dash to the elevator. Jarvis will bring the Mark XLI directly to the Quinjet, and they'll take off once Tony's collected the rest of the team.

Unfortunately, his team leader seems to think differently.

"What?" is the only thing Tony's tired brain seems to be able to come up with. He feels... strange. Tired, weak and wobbly, still twitching from the near-ultrasonic pulse from his implants, and... is that disappointment clogging his throat?

"Please, Tony, it's for your own good. You look done in. You should go sleep it off, not pilot the suit. We can do without you this once. Don't worry." Is Steve's smile patronizing? Tony squints. He honestly can't tell.

Clearly, his insistence that he was _fine_ and that they should just _take off, already_ , and if need be, he could maybe doze a couple of minutes on the Quinjet wasn't convincing at all.

"If I may, sir?" JARVIS interjects smoothly.

Tony waves weakly. He is not prepared for this in the least. It's been _years_ since he's been subjected to an Alpha using the fucking _Voice_ on him. These days, even his business rivals have too much class to slip up like that - not even when they want to put the uppity Omega in his place so badly he can taste it.

After all, dynamic harassment is a criminal offense on par with sexual harassment, thank you, Anita Hill.

"Captain Rogers, do you recall the various presentations S.H.I.E.L.D. showed to you regarding the changes in society over the last 60 years?" JARVIS' voice is matter-of-fact, friendly.

Steve nods cluelessly and looks around for the rest of the team. Tony can't hear any footsteps, but that's hardly conclusive. He expects Natasha to pop up any second.

"Right now, I am referring primarily to the presentations regarding the changes in gender, sex, and dynamic equality. The 22nd Amendment, to be exact. Do you remember what that is?"

"Why are we having JARVIS monologue about our constitutional rights instead of fucking _assembling_ right now?" Clint asks. He bumps into Tony's side, barely out of breath, the fucker, and in full tactical gear, his new, Tony-developed bow over his shoulder.

Clint - like Natasha, and Bruce - is a Beta. Tony loves him a little for saying " _our_ constitutional rights". Because, while Betas might be a little susceptible to an Alpha's leader personality, the Alpha Voice has no effect on them. Something that Tony has been envious of for _years_.

Howard had been an Alpha. Stane, thank _fuck_ , had been a Beta.

"Steve made a boo-boo," Natasha mentions off-handedly, but her smile is sharp, her eyes watchful.

Tony twitches (where did she come from?), but heroically doesn't take a step back. Even when the smile she sends _him_ is just as cutting.

JARVIS doesn't react to their by-play and continues, "Forcing someone into doing something by using the so-called 'Alpha Voice' is a form of dynamic harassment and here, in New York, falls under Title 8 of the city’s administrative code. I shall encourage Sir to file this incident with the appropriate authorities but, failing that - I _do_ know Sir, after all, and he is far too forgiving -, I will inform Ms. Potts. This is your one warning. Should you subject Sir to your Alpha Voice again at a later instant and thus attempt to 'convince' him to submit to a decision of yours without discussion, Ms. Potts will give you your two weeks' notice."

Tony squirms. Pepper is a lioness when one threatens someone she feels responsible for. Tony has been falling into that category ever since he first hired the most dynamically abnormal Alpha he's ever met.

JARVIS continues inexorably, "After those two weeks have passed, your ID card will no longer allow you entry into the Tower. Should it ever come to that, I suggest you move out your belongings before they'll be out of your reach, and get accustomed again to... other lodgings." The tone of his AI's voice alludes to Steve's disadvantage in that respect, what with the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., the lack of an employment and rental history, a regular pay check, and the necessary willingness to rent to a superhero with super strength and a list of enemies as long as one's arm.

Tony loves JARVIS fiercely at that moment, each and every overprotective little line of code and posh British vowel.

Especially since he looks to be the only one on Tony's side in this. Surprise.

_Not._

Natasha is now glaring at Tony openly. Clint has taken a shuffle to the side so as to no longer be in bodily contact. His mouth has pulled into a sneer. Barnes looks blank. Steve looks horrified.

"Don't you think this is going a bit too far, Tony?" Natasha asks, sounding so damned _reasonable_. "So Steve used his Alpha Voice on you. Clearly, you've managed to fight off the effects, so no harm, no foul, right? Also, I'm sure Steve didn't mean to, did you, Steve?"

There's a disturbing glimmer of interest in her eyes. Clearly, it's eating their resident spy up not to know how Tony managed to resist being snowed under. But Tony's equally sure that she thinks JARVIS interfered, and that he'd have been a lot less lucky outside the Tower and outside the suit.

The frequency of the Alpha Voice is at a level that resonates with a specific wave receptor in the Omega brain. As a result, the brain produces dramatically increased amounts of the various neurotransmitter responsible for an Omega's submissiveness and obeisance. Like hypnosis, in theory orders given in Alpha Voice cannot make an Omega do something that they're fundamentally opposed to or that would cause them harm, but...

There is always a but.

Point is, repeated exposure to the Alpha Voice and its effects is addictive as well as mentally destabilizing.

Tony vividly remembers the news about a certain court hearing in 1981. Mark David Chapman was an Omega and loved the Beatles beyond reason. His Alpha, however, hated Lennon and Ono for 'breaking the band'. The result? Shook the world in 1980.

Tony remembers just as vividly the night he staggered home after another 'date' with Ty Stone, and how he had a breakdown in his lab that was easily worse than going cold turkey on cocaine the year before, and how, within a fortnight, he and JARVIS came up with the implants he wears to this day.

They purported that a loud transmission of static with a frequency of 20,000 hertz - just at the range of human hearing - coupled with a mild electric shock should cancel out the effects of the Alpha Voice, and Ty proved them right the very next time they went out together.

Stark Industries marketed the invention in form of external devices similar to hearing aids not too long after, but somehow the idea never took off. Not after it was opposed by the Surgeon General and failed to get FDA approval. Tony isn't bitter because of that. He's _not_.

Still, he's worn the implants ever since, and frankly, was thinking about whether or not to keep them prior to injecting himself with the nanites for the suit nodes. He hadn't needed them for years, after all. Nonetheless, JARVIS and he finally agreed to keep them and to just update their power sources (and rooting around in his inner ear with extractor forceps is no joy, as Tony can attest to, urgh).

The point? In an ideal world, Tony shouldn't have needed to boost his bodily functions with invasive procedures just to keep control of his own physical and mental autonomy. That he _is_ bitter about.

But the prevalent opinion in today's society seems to be that if you find just the right Alpha for you, the _one_ Alpha you should and can trust not to snow you when your viewpoints differ and no compromise can be found, allowing yourself to go under with your Alpha's commanding voice in your ear is the pinnacle of romantic love. Like consensual BDSM, it's supposed to be a transcendental experience. But one relegated to the bedroom.

Using it in public on an Omega that doesn't belong to you? That's what dynamic harassment claims are made of, and the reason for audio surveillance in many public places. Like sexual harassment, however, malicious use of the Alpha Voice is not easily proven. The resulting increase in released neurotransmitters is on the verge of being tested for, though. Tony has an idea for an analyzer similar to a blood sugar reader, but it's still in the development stages. That reminds him - he needs to give SI's R&D department a good kick in the ass. He hasn't heard from them since he sent them the proof of concept.

Steve's voice (just his regular one, thank God) brings him back to the here and now.

"Of course I didn't mean to! Tony, I am _so_ sorry. There are a couple of things about the 21st century I don't understand entirely, but I know that this is something people today are sensitive about. I never meant for you to feel uncomfortable around me, or as though I wasn't willing to discuss things with you when there was a difference of opinion. I don't have a lot of experience with how Omegas react to the voice. Before the serum, I couldn't reach the necessary pitch, and so my mother told me I didn't have to worry about it much."

Tony squints again. That didn't sound like much of an apology.

"Friends?" But who can resist the famous Captain America Smile, coupled with a set of blue, blue puppy dog eyes and a hopeful expression?

A harder man than Tony Stark, for sure. He shakes Rogers' hand and smiles back, ignoring the tight feeling in his stomach.

"How about we put this to bed and focus on the important part, I don't know, like the situation in Houston perhaps?" Barton suggests and claps Tony on the shoulder.

Tony tries to control his flinch and pushes past Barton, making sure to keep a safe distance from Romanov whose smile is all soft and warm now, and happens to glance at Barnes' face. It's even more expressionless than usual, but the grey eyes burn.

Tony swallows and steps into the elevator, the rest of the Avengers on his heels.

He smiles only when JARVIS opens the hatch doors for their Quinjet to pass through and wishes him a safe return.

  


\-- the end --

**Author's Note:**

> All the romanticizing I've encountered lately of A/B/O in general (and the gift of a strong, virile Alpha sweeping a poor Omega off their feet) reminds me uncomfortably of all those "historical" Harlequin novels of the 80s and 90s. The heroines then (and our heroes today) trade their agency for protection in a supposedly 'romantic' match that is the envy of others... and get laid a lot, of course.  
> Omegas in fanfic tend to be not so secretly feminized characters with no will and drive of their own who dream of nothing but their very own Christian Grey who'll rescue them from their life of mediocrity. By making them into possessions and baby factories... because being relentlessly rogered and dominated is so *freeing*, right?
> 
> This story is unbeta'd. Should you wish to change that, please comment accordingly, ok? I'd very much appreciate it.


End file.
